Pain catastrophizing, but not mental health or social support, is associated with menstrual pain severity in women with dysmenorrhea: A cross-sectional survey

Subhadra Evans, Charlotte Dowding, Lisa Olive, Laura A. Payne, Payne LA, Marilla Druitt, Laura C. Seidman, Seidman LC, David Skvarc, Antonina Mikocka‐Walus
Psychology, health & medicine · 2021 · vol. 27(6) , pp. 1410–1420 · doi:10.1080/13548506.2021.1948581 · PMID:34190659 · W3175080109
Observational OA: green CC0 ⤵ 11 in-corpus citations
🔓 Open OA copy View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-10 ⓘ

This cross-sectional survey of 1192 women found that pain catastrophizing, particularly helplessness, predicted menstrual pain severity in both primary dysmenorrhea and endometriosis, while mental health and social support did not.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

The aim of this study was to understand the relationship between psychosocial factors, including mental health, pain cognitions and social support associated with menstrual pain severity in women with dysmenorrhea of no identified medical cause (primary dysmenorrhea; PD) and dysmenorrhea related to endometriosis. Participants included 1192 women aged 18-50 years with menstrual pain, recruited to an online cross-sectional survey in 2019. Questionnaires assessed self-reported menstrual pain severity, depression, anxiety, stress, pain catastrophizing, and social support. Women with endometriosis had significantly higher menstrual pain severity (p < 0.001) and pain catastrophizing (p < 0.001) than women with PD. Of the psychosocial factors, only pain catastrophizing (specifically, the helplessness sub-scale) predicted menstrual pain severity in each group. Overall, 36% of women with PD and 58% with endometriosis had clinically relevant levels of pain catastrophizing. Findings suggest a common psychological mechanism in women with menstrual pain, regardless of etiology. Interventions to reduce pain helplessness may be beneficial in supporting women with dysmenorrhea.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

dysmenorrheaendometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Dysmenorrhea Endometriosis Endometriosis Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Cross-Sectional Studies Cross-Sectional Studies Female Female Humans Humans Mental Health Mental Health Social Support Social Support Surveys and Questionnaires

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (38)

Cited by (11)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-17T06:09:56.316927+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:31:29.953102+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK